Digital music continues to grow in popularity. Millions of people purchase MP3s or other digital music online and via applications on their mobile devices. Millions more subscribe to music services that stream digital music on demand via the Internet or other networks.
Many people who listen to music use a conventional digital music player, such as iTunes®, WinAmp®, or Windows Media Player®. Such digital music players often have a “playlist”—a list of songs that the user has selected and that will be played in the order specified in the list.
A limitation of conventional digital music players is that they do not allow for seamless playback of songs. Namely, when one song in the playlist ends, there is often an abrupt break or a pause before the next song begins. This might be particularly noticeable when a currently playing song has a tempo or pitch that differs from a song that plays next. Moreover, even if a player could blend one song into the next, the transition between the two would not be aligned according to the tempo of each song, and would not take into account what portions of the two songs match on the basis of measure or song section. Additionally, conventional players do not allow a seamless way to layer one song on top of another.
The lack of seamless transition between songs is less than ideal for many users. For example, a user who is listening to dance music, hip hop, or music produced by disc jockeys may wish to have a continual music listening experience, with no audible gap when one song plays and the other begins. Such a user might want a new song to start playing at a particular portion that correlates to a portion of the currently playing song, or wish to layer two songs together. Similarly, a user who is playing music at a party, or in a bar or club may also wish to have music that seamlessly plays in such a manner. Unfortunately, conventional digital music players do not allow for such functionality.